Saturday, 9 August 2008

AA2 - week 02 - game audio analysis

Quake 3. Quake 3 Arena.

First person shooter with single and multiplayer modes, released in 1999.

Features startup logo for ID software.

Also cinematics for single player mode;intro movie - stylised action with tune from soundtrack and appropriate play noises.level movies - voice over introducing bots from each level, hyperreal sounds and ominous pads.

There are family sounds for characters (eg different footsteps shared between some character models), also unique sounds for some characters (EG orb jump).

Weapons have different sounds, but all seem to have similar hit sound.

There are two sorts of sound in gameplay.Diegetic sounds - characters moving/shooting/being shot and from the map features eg teleportals, jump pads and scenery eg fires.Non-diegetic sounds can be equated with narration/refereeing which give the game the feel of performing in an arena. eg voice overs giving current stats. And sounds associated with gameplay events eg dropping the flag.

The game engine features stereo spatialisation and doppler effect, and a possible 96 channels of audio (22kHz).